DAMMAM: Saudi Arabia has signed a raft of deals with an international health charity aimed at combating blindness in seven countries around the world, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) inked 16 agreements with Al-Basar International Foundation to implement medical programs in Bangladesh, Yemen, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, Eritrea and Pakistan. Dr. Aqeel bin Jamaan Al-Ghamdi, KSRelief’s assistant general supervisor of planning and development affairs, signed the accord with the foundation’s secretary-general, Dr. Adel bin Abdul Aziz Al-Rashoud. Al-Ghamdi said the campaigns to prevent blindness and diseases would involve medical checks on 100,000 cases, 10,000 vision-related operations, and the distribution of 20,000 medical glasses by the end of this year. Saudi Arabia has spent $87 billion (SR326 billion) on humanitarian aid to 81 countries over two decades. According to a KSRelief report, more than 1,011 humanitarian aid programs worth $3.5 billion have benefitted 44 countries, primarily Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Iraq, since 2014. Recently, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock announced that Saudi Arabia would be contributing $500 million to the world body next week to help fund its humanitarian response in Yemen. Lowcock said the Kingdom planned to pay on Sept. 25 and that the UAE had also recently made a payment of $200 million.HIGHLIGHT The campaigns to prevent blindness and diseases would involve medical checks on 100,000 cases, 10,000 vision-related operations, and the distribution of 20,000 medical glasses by the end of this year. Meanwhile, the center is carrying out several humanitarian projects in Syria and Yemen, which includes provision of food, health care, vocational training and education. KSRelief allocated 132 cartons containing food baskets to the needy in Socotra, the Yemen archipelago, benefiting 116 families, in addition to 80 food baskets for 400 people in Saada governorate’s Al-Atif. A total of 1,432 food baskets were also handed out in the Al-Wafa, Al-Baidar, Al-Rajab, Al-Zaalanah, Al-Taliya, Al-Fardan, Sabiroun, and Benin camps in Syria and many other informal settlements in Saraqib, Sarmin, Maarat Misrin and Salqin, benefiting 8,730 people. In addition, the center distributed 367 cartons of food baskets in Marib governorate, Yemen, in coordination with the Benevolence Coalition for Humanitarian Relief, helping 900 displaced people. This comes within the framework of the food projects provided by the Kingdom and represented by the centers for the Yemeni and Syrian peoples during the current humanitarian crisis.